We are witnessing a growing number of Devo Deals around the country, but are we fully aware of what these deals are? Devolution deals (to devolve power from central government to local areas in England) offer opportunities to stimulate economic growth and reform public services for local users. The arrangements are untested and government could do more to provide the confidence that these deals will achieve the benefits intended. Despite several rounds of talks the devo deals are still un-chartered water and pessimistic sharks are circling the devo deal ship looking for casualties. We are chartering the course as we sail into different ports to negotiate deals with no clear view of land ahead or crucially what the destination will be and how they will be received.

Over the last 18 months, 10 devo deals have been agreed, outlining the transfer of powers, funding and accountability for policies and functions previously undertaken by government. The 10 deals in question are Greater Manchester; Cornwall; Sheffield City Region; North East; Tees Valley; Liverpool City Region; West Midlands; East Anglia; Greater Lincolnshire and the West of England. HM Treasury, Cities and Local Growth Unit are responsible for managing the negotiation, agreement and implementation of devolution deals on behalf of central government as a whole. All the deals involve transport, business support and education with others including housing, planning, employment support and health and social care. There were 34 proposals received for consideration by September 2015.

Here are some interesting facts about devo deals:

* funding is £2.86 billion over 5 years for the first 6 mayoral devolution deals

* 16.1 million people are living in areas subject to devolution deals

* 9 new mayors of combined authorities are to be elected in 2017

* 155 staff in the Cities and Local Growth Unit

* 7 HM Treasury staff in central team supporting devolution deals supported by departmental and specialist teams

* 25% real-terms reduction in local authority income between 2010/11 and 2015/16 and £246.5million additional investment funding per year as part of devolution deals (7.4 million over 30 years)

Devolution deals are a core component of central governments broader policy to decentralise power to local areas. The motivation is to stimulate local growth and rebalance the economy and reform public services so that they are better designed by local people. We must remember that these policies are experimental and remain untested, no doubt with significant teething problems. The environment will look and feel differently around the country as we are all starting from different places with a very different history. A number of issues already identified need to be resolved to give greater confidence to the resilience of these deals before handing over power.

To improve the chances of success, we must look to provide greater clarity to the 10 deals over the progression of the deal, clarifying the core purpose of the deal in each region. We must clarify who will be responsible and accountable for each aspect of the deal and the powers for the new mayors. The monitoring process of the deals and how we can determine if economic growth is taking place, while improving public services needs to be finalised. How do we ensure there is no conflict between the geographical boundaries of these new deals in order to mitigate risk and maximise opportunities? How does Brexit impact on these deals and what is the government’s long term position on devo deals?

We are currently hearing lots of rhetoric talk with big numbers and the possible role of LEPs, but we are no clearer on the real position of these deals. However, we are in a changing climate of economic uncertainty and we will watch with great interest over the next 10 months until the mayors are elected in May 2017. The face of local government could be unrecognisable in future years – one thing we all want and demand is improved services and growth in our regions.